New Study Shows More Women Have Leading Roles in Movies Than Ever Before... But There's a Catch

We still have a long way to go.

Good news: women are cracking glass ceilings in Hollywood like never before. Not-as-good news? The type of woman in question is, overwhelmingly, white.

According to a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, the number of female protagonists this year was 22% (up from 6% last year). They also accounted for 34% of major characters and 33% of all speaking characters — and 18% of antagonists, a metric the center started tracking for the first time this year. (Hey, it's always fun playing the baddie.)

While they are still not as represented as men, it's certainly a drastic increase, and one that deserves to be noted. “The numbers were definitely moving in the right direction,” said Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center. “What is not clear is whether or not 2015 was a bit of an anomaly or whether this is the beginning of a longer-term trend.”

This is certainly something worth celebrating, but there's still a long way to go — namely, when it comes to representing race. The study revealed that most of the major female characters were played by white actresses. The percentages of female characters of different races remained largely unchanged, despite the major spike in female leading characters altogether. Additionally, roles that actresses of color played were more supporting than they were leading. 27% of roles played by actresses of color were considered significant, compared to white actresses' 38%.

Progress is not the enemy of perfection, so while we are celebrating the fact that we're beginning to see a more level playing field in terms of gender, we cannot forget that there are people who exist in this world of different races, colors, dialects, cultures, and countries. Remember Viola Davis's epic speech in which she reminded everyone that "you cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there"? Hollywood is finally listening — but not all the way. It's time they leaned all the way in.

One solution? Hire female directors. The study found that 40% of speaking roles and 50% of protagonists in films that had female directors were women. It's not a perfectly level playing field just yet, but it's proof that making Hollywood a bit of a girls' club truly can pay off.